Tougher days ahead: Questions build about Weis' future at Notre Dame

After latest loss, questions build about Weis' future at ND.

After latest loss, questions build about Weis' future at ND.

SOUTH BEND -- The boldest statement to come out of Notre Dame Sunday regarding the state of its distressed football program was that there wouldn't be any.

No spin. No photo-shopping of rays of sunshine into the big picture. No filibustering by Irish fifth-year coach Charlie Weis about what his future may or should look like. No word if the team stopped for gooey Primanti Brothers sandwiches on the way home from its Saturday night 27-22 deflation at No. 8 Pittsburgh.

Just a polite 58-word e-mail stating that Weis' regularly scheduled Sunday press conference would be canceled, just 4Â½ hours before its launch. For the first time in five seasons.

With or without sculpted and scripted answers, the questions get bigger, uglier and more persistent.

Here's a blend of questions and answers that will frame the world Weis and the people who sign his paychecks will be swimming in over the next couple of weeks.

1. The size of the buyout in Charlie Weis' contract will play out in the media like a segment on The Price Is Right. Higher. Lower. Millions of dollars lower. I'm sorry, the lovely dinette set defaults to our current champion.

The bottom line is: It just doesn't matter. If athletic director Jack Swarbrick, university president the Rev. John I. Jenkins and the powerbrokers who scrutinize and shape their decisions want to make a change, they're not going to be held hostage by a deal former athletic director Kevin White slapped together a half a season into the Weis Era.

2. Could the Irish be facing their next coach in two weeks?

Stanford's Jim Harbaugh is one of the more intriguing names to pop up in the "sources tell me" mill that will be gurgitated and regurgitated to the Notre Dame fans base in the days to come.

It's so intriguing, in fact, that Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby is trying to hastily cobble together a contract extension.

According to CBS College Sports recruiting analyst Tom Lemming, Harbaugh -- also rumored to be an heir apparent at his alma mater, Michigan -- is one of the better, if not the best, recruiters among the up-and-comers in the replace-Weis equation.

Interestingly, his bottom line at Stanford sits at 16-18, though the Cardinal have arguably progressed further in his three years there than the Irish have in Weis' five in South Bend. And Harbaugh did amass a 29-6 mark at his only previous head coaching job -- at Division I-AA (Football Championship Subdivision) University of San Diego.

3. What happens in ND's next two games, Connecticut and Stanford, should have no bearing in whether Weis stays or goes.

Is there really something Weis could show in games No. 61 and 62 that's going to change the body of work in his first 60?

Swarbrick vows he'll wait to the end of the season to make his evaluation. It's only fair, but in this instance, it's the wrong thing to do.

Swarbrick should already be kicking the tires on possible replacements. If he's going to keep Weis, announce it at Tuesday's press conference (provided that one doesn't get canceled, too) and move forward.

But if he's going to move in another direction, pencil in a press conference on Nov. 29, the day after ND plays at Stanford. Have the replacement ready to roll out in the hours or, at most, days that follow.

If he needs to see what a coaching transition should look like, call former Irish athletic director Gene Corrigan, who orchestrated the Gerry Faust-to-Lou Holtz flip.

If he needs to see how not to do it, just look back at the last two ND coaching purges.

4. Notre Dame doesn't necessarily need to go bowling.

Unless you're talking about the kind with beer frames and gutter balls.

If the Irish do win their final two games and get to 8-4, a Gator Bowl matchup with Miami (Fla.) is a very real probability, and Notre Dame should go, even if the Irish are being guided by an interim head coach.

For one, the estimated payout of $2.5 million will be a nice down payment on Weis' buyout -- if Weis is bought out. It's also important for Notre Dame to honor its contractual obligations, particularly in a year when Swarbrick is trying to realign ND's bowl plan for the 2010-2013 bowl cycle.

But if the Irish fall outside, or rather beneath, the Big East/ND clause and have to go dumpster-diving again, a bowl game makes much less sense in a coaching transition year. For starters, the Irish would likely lose money on the transaction.

Yes, coaches rave about how younger players benefit from the extra 15 practices, but the guy who needs those practices the most, future starting quarterback Dayne Crist, had surgery on a torn ACL in his right knee a week and a half ago and won't be able to do anything more strenuous than hold a clipboard at practice in December.

5. The ugliest part of the next two weeks will be Weis dancing away from the big picture and the media/fans pushing him back toward it with his own old, out-of-context quotes.

Nothing will sting more than Weis' mantra following his debut season: "9-3 isn't good enough," because, ironically, 9-3 might have been.

But there have been some notable things that have been good enough during the Weis regime. At the top of the list is recruiting. If there is a change after this season, the next coach won't inherit the depth, talent and perception flaws most purged coaches leave behind.

Weis also changed the culture in the admissions/academic parts of campus, most notably convincing them to allow early enrollees -- a policy that helped land quarterback Jimmy Clausen in South Bend instead of Los Angeles.

6. Fasten your seat belts.

All you'll want for Christmas is to never hear the word "sources" again. And you'll want it as soon as the Black Friday Christmas shopping holiday.

The only lunacy from which you might be spared is that Notre Dame has now cleverly blocked the university plane (N42ND) from showing up on flightaware.com -- a flight-tracking Web site.

Still, in the Internet age, coaching searches tend to bring out the worst in journalism more often than the best.